Translational Methods

Past Awards

The CCTSI is pleased to announce the Translational Methods Program​​ awardees. These positions are funded by the NIH/NCRR grant to the CCTSI.​

2023 Translational Methods Program Awards

InvestigatorsAffiliationProject Title
Brad Nelson, DVM, PhD
Katie Sikes, PhD
Colorado State University
C. Wayne McIlwraith Translational Medical Institute
An Improved Translational Model of Ovine Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis
Alex Barker, PhD
Lorna Browne, MD
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine

CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Children's Hospital Colorado
Development of motion robust ultrasound gating to enable fetal cardiovascular MRI of congenita heart disease

2022 Translational Methods Program Awards

InvestigatorsAffiliationProject Title
Jessica Metcalf, PhD
Susan Lana, PhD
Colorado State University
College of Agriculture 

Colorado State University
Flint Animal Cancer Center
Evaluating low-biomass microbial communities associated with spontaneous canine tumors as a translational model for human disease
Julie Moreno, PhD
Karyn Hamilton, PhD
Colorado State University
Center for Healthy Aging

Colorado State University
Center for Healthy Aging
Hartley guinea pigs: A translational model of spontaneous and progressive neurodegeneration
Elizabeth Juarez-Colunga, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Public Health
Developing novel methods for dynamic prediction of highly variable outcomes in adult epilepsy patients
Cynthia Armstrong, PT, DPT, CHT, CLT
Christodoulos Kaoutzanis, MD
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine

CU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine
Establishing guidelines for optimal manual lymphatic drainage (MLD)
Martin Breuss, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine
Targeted long-read sequencing for parental haplotype determination of diagnostic variants
Manisha Patel, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Pharmacy
Validating larval zebrafish brain activity using a novel non-invasive multielectrode array system
Jenny Zablah, MD
Debanjan Mukherjee, PhD
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Children’s Hospital Colorado
CU Boulder
College of Engineering and Applied Science
Computational fluid dynamic assessment of patients with congenital heart disease from 3D rotational angiography obtained in the catheterization laboratory

2021 Translational Methods Program Awards

InvestigatorsAffiliationProject Title
David Prawel, PhD
Bernard Seguin, VMD
Colorado State University
Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Testing A Novel Approach to Healing Critical Bone Defects
Brian Scansen, DVM, MSColorado State University
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
A novel cardiac CT based technique to assess primary mitral regurgitation in a naturally occurring large animal model
John Rice, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Public Health
Innovations in the design and analysis of studies to improve childhood vaccination rates
Ryan Peterson, PhD
Carsten Goerg, PhD
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Public Health
Visual Interactive Model Selection for Determining Predictors of Lung Function
Virginia Ferguson, PhDCU Boulder
College of Engineering & Applied Science
Development of a novel animal model for osteochondritis dissecans
Jeffrey Kieft, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine
Controlling the transcriptome with engineered and customized non-coding RNAs
Mark Borden, PhD
David Thomas, PhD
CU Boulder
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Endoskeletal nanodrops for x-ray photoacoustic dosimetry

2020 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsProject Title

Frank Dinenno, PhD

Colorado State University
College of Health and Human Sciences
Department of Health and Exercise Science
A novel approach to real-time monitoring of erythrocyte ATP release as a function of hypoxia
Katerina Kechris, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
Colorado School of Public Health
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
SiNorm: a novel statistical methodology for normalizing signal intensities in preclinical MRI
Julia Wrobel, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Public Health
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Network Analysis of the Ovarian Tumor Microenvironment
Eva Grayck, MDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine
Department of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Critical Care
Development of Novel Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Tools Necessary for In Vivo Assessment of Free Radical Production in Heart Failure
Keith Koch, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine
Department of Medicine
Division of Cardiology
A soft-to-stiff, phototunable hydrogel, 96-well high-content screening platform for the study of fibrosis mechanoregulation and the identification of novel antifibrotic compounds
Mia Smith, DVM, PhDCU Anschutz Medical Campus
Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes
Department of Pediatrics
Division of Basic Research
Simultaneous detection of antigen specificity, V(D)J repertoire, and gene expression in single B cells
Michael V. Zaretsky, MDChildren’s Hospital Colorado
Colorado Fetal Care Center, Medical Director
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
CU School of Medicine
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine
In utero targeting of the CFTR gene using CRISPR/Cas9

2018 - 2019 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsProject Title
Kristina Legget, PhDKorey Wylie, PhDDevelopment of a novel method for whole-brain multivariate connectivity analysis to assess relationships between clinical symptoms and brain connectivity in psychiatric disorders
Rebekah Kading, PhDCD Snow, PhDEdible, Biodegradable, Barcode Crystals for Arthropod Surveillance
Mark Stenglein, PhD Unraveling rotavirus reassortment: A novel amplicon-NGS method for genotyping Rotavirus A strains from clinical samples
David Westerly, PhD Development of a nanosecond class pulsed x-ray source for translational research applications
Thomas Jansson, MDSteven Abman, MDDevelopment of a guinea pig NICU for transformative studies of prematurity
Min Choi, PhDAnn Halbower, MDNon-Contact Remote Breathing Analysis through Visualization of Thermal and CO2 Flow (VTCF)
Ryan Lanning, MD, PhDTraci Lyons, PhDOptical Lymphangiography of Murine Mammary Tissue during Involution and in Postpartum Breast Cancer
Petter Bjornstad, MD Phase Contrast MRI to Calculate Glomerular Filtration Rate Study

2017 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Debnath Chatterjee Phase INovel Technology for Continuous Quantitative Monitoring of Uterine Tone
James CarolloWilly Boucharel, Richard Pimentael, David PolanerPhase IIMultichannel Intraoperative EMG Recording of Myometrium for Continuous Monitoring of Uterine Tone
Achim Klug Phase IMeasuring extracellular calcium concentration in the brain in-vivo
Charles Henry Phase IINovel electrochemical sensors extracellular calcium measurements
Leah Villegas Phase IPharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic evaluation of targeted therapies in the pulmonary circulation
MyPhuong Le Phase IIDosing, sampling and analysis of the pulmonary circulation for PK/PD studies of pulmonary therapies
David Beckham Phase IDevelopment of RNA flow cytometry analysis for genomic Zika virus RNA detection
Eric Clambey Phase IIIdentification and purification of virally-infected cells based on RNA expression

2016 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Kurt Stenmark Phase INovel Durg Screening Method for Pulmonary Hypertension
Daniel LaBarberaLinfeng LiPhase II3D culture models for high throughput drug discovery targeting pulmonary hypertension
Traci Lyons Phase IImaging Technique to Correlate Inflamed Breast Cancer and Lymph Node Metastasis
Natalie Serkova Phase IINon-Invasive Muli-Parametric MRI on Lymph Node Involvement and Inflammation Status in Breast Cancer
Nicholas Walter Phase IPathogen-Targeted Transcriptional Profiling in Human Samples:  A Tool for Monitoring Treatment Responses in Tuberculosis
Carol WiluszJoe RussoPhase IINovel method for selecting M.abscessus RNAs from infected human tissue samples

2015 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Ken Maclean Phase IEnhanced bio delivery of cystathionine as a treatment for acute liver disease failure, nephrotoxicity and vascular calcification
Tom Anchorduquoy Phase IIImproving cystathionine in a manner which allows increased solubility and gradual release in vivo
Aviva Abosch Phase ISensory Gating with a Microelectrode during deep brain stimulation surgery
Keeran Maharajh Phase IIDeveloping a method to measure auditory agting during deep brain stimulation surgery
Dwight KlemmKathleen Gavin, Wendy KhortPhase IDevelopment of a method to distinguish human adipocytes arising from distinct progenitor cells
Rick ReisdorphNichole ReisdorphPhase IIDevelopment of proteomics and metabolomics methods to distinguish between human adipocytes arising from distinct progenitor cells
Catherine Lozupone Phase ITargeted metabolomics of producs of bacterial ploycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degradation in the nasal cavity
Michael Wempe Phase IIOptimization and Validation of Mass Spectrometry-based Assays for the Measurement of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their metabolites

2014 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Nguyen Vu Phase IFlow Cytrometric Analysis to Define Gut Microbiota
Xiaoli Yu Phase IIDevelopment of high affinity phage peptide probes for rapid identification and characterization of the microbiota subsets that contribute to graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) pathogenesis
Joseph HurtKathleen ConnellPhase INovel biomechanical measurements of the uterine cervix at parturition
Virginia FergusonMark RentschlerPhase IINovel biomechanical measurements of the uterine cervix at parturition
Eoin McNamee Phase IMouse colonography for non-invasive assessment of intestinal architecture during colitis and colitis associated colon cancer
Natalie Serkova Phase IISmall Animal microCT Colongraphy and FDG-PET for Non-Invasive Imaginf of Colitis and Colitis Inflammation
Jane ReuschJudy RegensteinerPhase IDevelopment of non-invasive systemic vascular characterization for diagnosis and prognosis of systemic vascular disease
Kendall Hunter Phase IIEcho- and MR-based quantitative assessment of the systemic vasculature

2012 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Pepper Schedin Phase INon-Invasive Macrophage Imaging in Breast Cancer Models
Natalie Serkova Phase IIIron Oxide Based T2-MRI for Imaging Macrophage Recruitment into Breast Cancer
Kristen Uhler Phase IAudiologist needs novel method for advanced analysis techniques of auditory evoked potentials and computer programming to develop sound stimuli
Daniel TollinNathaniel GreenePhase IIData acquisition and analysis software for measurements of mismatch negativity and acoustic change complex
Eric Clambey Phase IThe development of histology-based flow cytometry for multi-parameter, quantitative analysis of cell pupulations in situ
Richard Benninger Phase IIMulti-parameter quantatative analysis of cellular populations in-situ

2011 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Anna IvanschenkoGordon LindbergPhase IMultiplex Point-of-Care Diagnostic Anemia Testing in Critically Ill Burn Patients
Mark Duncan Phase IIMultiplex Point-of-Care Diagnostic Anemia Testing in Critically Ill Burn Patients

2010 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Dennis Voelker, PhDBob Murphy, PhD, School of Medicine, PharmacologyPhase IIA highly sensitive method for rapid and large-scale quantification of phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositiol in pulmonary surfactant from patients with acute and chronic lung diseases.
Daniel Tollin, PhDKanthaiah Koka, PhD, School of Medicine, Physiology and BiophysicsPhase IIData acquisition and analysis software for smooth pursuit eye movement measurements in infants
Wenbo Zhou, PhD Phase IIDevelopment of novel method to generate sensory neuron from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for varicella zoster virus infection and latency study
Mark Laudenslager, PhD Phase IISalivary alpha amylase as a biomarker of acute stress reactivity

2009 Translational Methods Program Awards

Primary InvestigatorCo-InvestigatorsAward PhaseProject Title
Lori A. Walker, PhDJohn S. Walker, PhDPhase IINew Methods for Assessing Human Blood Vessel Mechanical Function
Mark S. Brown, PhD Phase IIDevelopment of a Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy-Based Measure of GABA Concentrations for Studies of Neurodevelopment Disorders
Kai R. Larsen, PhDJintae Lee, PhD and Zoya Voronovich, University of Colorado BoulderPhase IIThe Inter-Nomological Network for Behavioral Health
Lynne Bemis, PhDWon Park, PhD, University of Colorado Boulder, EngineeringPhase IIGold Nanoparticle Assay for the Detection of Multiple MicroRNAs in Patient Samples
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